DIY Bath Bombs

Christmas is coming up and as I’ve gotten older it has been getting more difficult to find something nice for everybody. So every year I’m looking for nice little things that I can do myself.

I love bath bombs and they make pretty presents but unfortunately they are quite expensive in the stores. So I looked for a cheap alternative and decided to make them on my own. Sadly enough we don’t have a bathtub anymore so someone else has to enjoy them. For a few days now I couldn’t decide if I should publish these on the blog or not since friends and family with a bathtub will now know what they’ll be getting for Christmas. On the other hand people might read it and decide to give away some bath bombs themselves. Either way, I am sure people will enjoy them nonetheless.

Since this is the first time I tried making bath bombs, I used a simple recipe. It was enough for 14 hearts and three bath bombs.

2 cups baking soda
1 cup corn starch
1 cup citric acid (you can buy that in the baking section of bigger stores or in the pharmacy)
oil of your choice (I used coconut oil)
spray bottle with water
herbs, fragrances and food colouring (powder or liquid)
moulds (I used acrylic moulds from the craft store which are used for Christmas baubles etc.)

Mix all the dry ingredients together on a big plate. Using your hands will be easier with determining the right amount of moisture later. If you want to make two batches you can split the mixture in half. Then you can add the colour and fragrances. I added some green colour, herbs, Christmas spices and some drops orange oil which is normally used for baking. When everything is mixed properly, add spoon after spoon of melted coconut oil (or other oil) and spray the mixture with a bit of water. Be really careful with the amount of liquid you use. It should only be moist enough to stick together in the end. Don’t spray too much water on it or it will start to fizz a lot! The mixture is moist enough when it feels like wet sand. It’s just like building a sand castle!

If you’re working like me, it will be a bit of a mess

Take a small hand full of the mixture and press it really firmly into a mould. You can make a half, like I did with the hearts, or you can use a whole mold to make balls for example. Just make sure it’s really firmly packed! Then put the mould with the “dough” on a tray with baking paper. The bath bombs should come out easily. You can squeeze the acrylic mould a little to let it slide out. If it crumbles you can start over again or even make it a bit more moist.

For the pink ones I put some lavender oil and for the colour some red mineral blush. Mineral make up in general is fine and works really well.
Let everything dry at least overnight. If some shapes happen to get little cracks, you can rub your finger over it and make it disappear. None of mine broke so far but the balls have gotten some cracks where they’re moulded together. They still seem to hold up pretty well.